Selected Publications

The Trickster Shift: Humour and Irony in Contemporary Native Art, the University of British Columbia Press and the University of Washington Press, 1999, 304 pages.

Recipient of the American Book Award for excellence in multicultural literature, 2000Honoured by The Association of American University Presses for excellence in book design and production, 2000
Recipient of an Alcuin Society Award for excellence in book design in Canada, 2000

Visual Voices: A Festival of Canadian Aboriginal Film and Video, online study guide, National Film Board of Canada/Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 2006. In English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. (English, pp. 1–26, 114 pages in total.) Sections also translated into Mandarin for booklets published in conjunction with the “Canada-China Forums on Aboriginal (Ethnic) Identity: Cultural Preservation,” Northwest University for Nationalities, Lanzhou, Gansu Province; Qinghai Nationalities University, Xining, Qinghai Province, China, 2007.

“Trickster Discourse in Narrative Chance: How Gerald Vizenor Helped Shape my Life in Academia,” International Conference on “Native North American Survivance and Memory: Celebrating Gerald Vizenor,” University of Vienna, June 2014.

“Allow for the Possibility that this Course Can Change Your Life: Adopting Indigenous pedagogical practices,” Philosophy of Education Conference, George Brown College, Toronto, May 2014.

“The Critical Insights of Aboriginal Cartoonists,” contribution to the session “Graphic satire, caricature, and the language in which we draw.” 9th International Conference on Word and Image, International Association of Word and Image Studies, Montreal, August 2011.

Discussant’s remarks, contribution to the session “Alaska Native Visual Arts in the 20th Century,” 107th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, California, November 2008.

Presentations on the film series Visual Voices to three conferences on the theme “Géopolitiques des altérités.” Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiania, Brazil; Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Uberlandia, Brazil, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil, September 2008.

“Cinematic Diplomacy: Tracing the Travels of a Canadian Aboriginal Film Festival,” contribution to the session “First Nations Diasporas: An Emerging Form of Transnational Citizenship,” Canadian Anthropology Association Conference, Ottawa, May 2008.

“Subtitled in Mandarin: How NFB Films by Canadian Aboriginal Directors Find a Global Audience—the Visual Voices Project,” Indigenous Film and Media in an International Context, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, May 2007.

“The Trickster Shift: Remembering Carl Beam (1942–2005),” contribution to the session “Trickster as Social Practice in Native American Art,” Biennial Meeting of the Native American Art Studies Association, Tempe, Arizona, October 2005.

“Coyote Was Walking Along: Trickster Mischief in Canadian First Nations Art,” Institute for Canadian Studies, University of Upper Silesia, Sosnowiec, Poland, April 2005.

“About Face: An Exhibition of Native American Self-Portraits,” keynote address for the 25th Conference of the American Indian Workshop, Leuven, Belgium, May 2004.

“Beach Blanket Brave: Aboriginal Self-Representation in a Changing World,” contribution to the session “At the Cutting Edge: Indian Humor and the Politics of Survival,” American Anthropological Association, Chicago, November 2003.

“Beyond the Pale: Post-Colonial Parallels in Contemporary Canadian and Australian Aboriginal Art,” 12th Biennial Conference of the Native American Art Studies Association, Portland, Oregon, October 2001.

“Postmodern Parody: A Political Strategy in Contemporary Canadian Native Art,” Tenth International Humor Congress, Paris, France, July 1992.

“Humour Irony Politics Praxis: Contemporary Canadian Native Art,” Second International Conference on Humor in Art, Missillac, Brittany, France, July 1992.

“Gerald McMaster and the Evolution of a Playful Perspective,” 8th Biennial Meeting of the Native American Art Studies Association, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, September 1991.

“As Sharp as a Feather: The Critical Edge of Contemporary Canadian Native Art,” Ninth International Conference on Humour and Laughter, St. Catharines, Ontario, June 1991.

“Uneasy Laughter: An Exploration of the Critical Use of Humour by Contemporary Canadian Native Artists,” Annual Conference of the Native Art Studies Association of Canada, Montreal, Quebec, October 1990.

“Irony in the Work of Contemporary Canadian Native Artists,” 12th International Summer Institute for Semiotic and Structural Studies, Toronto, Ontario, June 1990.

“Contemporary Native American Art—The Irony of It All!” 7th Biennial Meeting of the Native American Art Studies Association, Vancouver, B.C., August 1989.

“Indian Art, How Ironic?” 16th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Anthropology Society, Ottawa, Ontario, May 1989.

Invited Non-Conference Presentations

Untitled presentation on Canadian Indigenous films and culture to attendees at the film festival From Our Eyes–Heart of Tribes: Canadian and Chinese Aborigines Movies Exhibition, Yunnan University for Nationalities, Kunming, China, August 2016.

Respondent to keynote address by Dr. Yvonne Donders (University of Amsterdam), at the launch of a Symposium on the Arts and Human Rights, organized by the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa, June 2015.

Two lectures on Aboriginal pedagogy, self-portraiture and the art of Haida master, Charles Edenshaw, Art in View program, National Gallery of Canada, April 2014.

“Cultural Preservation through Personal Reflection: The Powerful Self-Portraits of Contemporary Aboriginal Artists,” West End Learning Unlimited, Kanata, February 2013.

“Coyote Was Walking Along: Following the Trickster on a Journey through Academia,” contribution to the series “Full Cycle: A Celebration of UBC Anthropology,” Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, March 2010.

“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Recovery: the Healing Power of Humor in First Nations and Native American Art,” St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, New York, November 2008.

Untitled presentation on Canadian Aboriginal films and culture to faculty and students of Guangxi University for Nationalities, Nanning, Guangxi Province, China, March 2007.

“Contemporary Canadian Aboriginal Aesthetics,” Visiting Speakers Series, Department of Visual Arts, University of Western Ontario, London, February 2007.

“Jim Logan: The Classical Aboriginal Series,” contribution to the session “Fine Arts in Canada,” International Council of Canadian Studies (ICCS) Summer Seminar, Carleton University/University of Ottawa, 2005, 2006, 2007.

“Providing a context,” Canadian Studies Alumni Association tour of the exhibition Norval Morrisseau–Shaman Artist, National Gallery of Canada, April 2006.

“Tracing Raven/Chasing Coyote: Trickster Play in Contemporary Indigenous Art,” Museum of Art and Design, New York, December 2005.

“Remembering Carl Beam,” opening of memorial exhibition of work by Ojibway artist Carl Beam, from the permanent collection, National Gallery of Canada, November 2005.

Curator’s remarks, opening of the exhibition About Face: Native American, First Nations and Inuit Self-Portraits, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico, November 2005.

“Cross-Currents in Aboriginal Art and Literature,” Institut für Anglslistik/Amerikanistik, University of Greiswald, Germany, May 2005.

“Contemporary Aboriginal Arts in Canada,” University of Leiden, Leiden, Netherlands, May 2004.

“Contemporary Canadian Native Arts,” University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, May 2004.

Other Important Forms of Scholarly Productivity

Founder and organizer of the Annual New Sun Conference on Aboriginal Arts at Carleton University, 2002–2017. Continuing. 200+ in attendance in 2017.

Visual Voices II (August 2016): At the invitation of the Canadian Consulate in Chongqing, China, and building on my screening of films by Canadian Aboriginal filmmakers on university campuses in China in 2007 (Visual Voices I), I collaborated with Howard Adler, Carleton MA graduate, and co-founder of Ottawa’s Asinabka Film and Media Arts Festival, to co-curate a selection of recent films by Canadian Aboriginal filmmakers that were screened in the festival From Our Eyes–Heart of Tribes: Canadian and Chinese Aborigines Movies Exhibition at the Yunnan University for Nationalities, Kunming, China, along with films by Taiwanese filmmakers and Chinese filmmakers working in Tibet. Associated lectures and workshops also took place. Future collaborations in both Canada and China are planned.

Organizer, facilitator/co-facilitator of four First Nations, Inuit Health Branch Aboriginal Film Festivals: Healing Journeys (February 2010), Identity, community and health (January–February, 2009); Health and Healing in the Aboriginal Community (June, 2007); The Promise of Spring: A Hopeful Season for Health and Wellness (March 2008), Health Canada, Ottawa.

Graduate Courses Taught at Carleton University

Aboriginal Peoples, Canada and the North, Indigenous and Canadian Studies

Johanna Foot, “Eskimo Chicks and Word Warriors: Creative Cultural Space in the Work of Elisapie Isaac and Taqralik Partridge,” Major Research Essay, Indigenous and Canadian Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 2008.

Maike Worringer, “Crossing the Divide: Indigenous Rights and Self-Determination for Canadian First Nations and Fenno-Scandinavian Sámi,” Major Research Essay, Indigenous and Canadian Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 2006.

Larry McDermott, “Knowing the Past—Building the Future: Self-determination by Aboriginal peoples who are not formally recognized by Canadian legislation or treaties,” Major Research Essay, Indigenous and Canadian Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 2005.

Margaret Imrie, “An Examination of the Evolution and Globalization of Aurora College and the Northwest Territories,” Major Research Essay, Indigenous and Canadian Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 2005.

Sarah Hurford, “An Inter-disciplinary Examination of the Availability of Information Relating to residential School Attendance at the Library and Archives of Canada,” Major Research Essay, Indigenous and Canadian Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 2005.

Carol Hodgson, “Stealing in by the window: Ojibway-Government Relations in the Quetico,” Thesis, Indigenous and Canadian Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 2003.

MA thesis co-supervision

(with Thomas Garvey, School of Industrial Design)
Sylvain Désprés, “Grounding codesign in a culturally appropriate landscape: Learning from Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing through conversation,” Master of Design thesis, School of Industrial Design, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 2016.